Days 15 & 16:Cottage Grove to Monroe and Eugene

Greetings from the Eugene, Oregon library. We are ready to head East to the snowy mountains to see Phil's cousin, Terry O'Casey, who now ministers in La Pine, OR. We plan to get some chains before leaving town.

We went from Cottage Grove to Monroe, a short drive, after spending some time in Eugene. We ordered Phil's ipod Touch for his birthday and finally got it yesterday, Oct 3rd! Yeah for Oregon, no tax to pay! We arrived at Monroe and met our host in the church parking lot. We followed him to his home. Walt and Carol took great care of us. I enjoyed petting "Freckles", their over-friendly black and white, and extremely hairy cat. Part of her came away with me! At 6:00 we drove back to the church and had a cookie hour before speaking. We had a fair crowd of 15-20. Next morning after a great breakfast, we returned to Eugene where we joined our former Administrative Assistant for LATM, Jenni Piotrowski, and her husband Niki for lunch. (They came also to our evening presentation at Garden Way CC with their two boys, Kaz, 1, and Judah, 2). It was a joy to see them again and Phil was fascinated as Niki showed us where he works at a Christian Publishing House that does printing on demand, a new possibility for LATM.

We went to the Garden Way church a little early and we were soon met by our host, Esther. Her husband, Gordon, was out of town on business. They have a beautiful home, a great dog, and an apple orchard beside their home. They will do the first picking in another week. We picked 2 bagfuls to bring with us! After a wonderful dinner, we raced back to the church for the presentation. We were able to see Gordon and Erma Thompson, longtime friends of LATM. Again, about 20 or 25 were there. After a restful night, we headed for the Eugene library again. But time has passed and it is time to be "on the road again"! Thanks for following us in our journey. I'm sure some great pictures will soon be on the blog, since we are headed for snow and mountains.

Just a word about Eugene. I think this is the town where all the Hippies of the 60's and 70's retired. I sat for 20 minutes in front of the library yesterday and waited for Phil. I saw every shape, size and color of person you can imagine. And the outfits were very--well, strange. Some boots with socks and no skirt--just bright striped long socks. Lots of tattoos, chains, bikes, piercings, and hair. Even the OLD people were a bit strange. They came from the library, one with a pottery jug tied around his waist and a bright colored poncho around his shoulders. One man came out in a suit, but was moving his lips as though someone was beside him on the other end of the conversation. A lady came out with 30 or more books, looking furtively about her, sneaking from tree to tree. This only describes a few, but man is it wild here! A bit out of my comfort zone. I wonder what they thought about us?!

Blessings, Susan